aixcentric

‘My Lady’, the French title for ‘The Children’s Act’ is an absorbing film currently showing at the cinema Mazarin: in the midst of a marital crisis, a UK High Court judge must decide if she should order a life-saving blood transfusion for a teen with cancer despite his family’s refusal to accept medical treatment for religious reasons. It’s based on the novel by Ian McEwen who also wrote the screenplay.

Emma Thompson plays the High Court judge admirably. She researched the part by shadowing two women judges who helped her enormously.

“Spending time at the high court was one of the greatest privileges,” Thompson said. “Backstage at the Old Bailey and in those places, only judges and their clerks are allowed to walk on the red carpet. It’s extraordinary. The arcane hierarchies within that system are amazing.

“Then you suddenly realise that they [judges] are these godlike creatures in their robes walking around with this extraordinary power, and hardly any women have that kind of power in the world, ever, so you’re playing something very unusual.

“The family court is considered the poor cousin of the criminal court, but it’s where the real drama and the real pain happens,’ she explained.

Writer Ian McEwan was intrigued by a similar story from his friend Alan Ward, a family court judge who had tried many similar cases.

Setting the legal action into the framework of domestic upheaval gives another dimension to the narrative.

At the Mazarin for at least one more week.